Grinding machine



Oct. 3, 1933.

L. SCHULTE GRINDING MACHINE Filed May l0, 1950 Arrowfy Patented Oct. 3, 1933 UNITEDI STATES PA'IEN'T OFFICE GRINDING MACHINE Louis Schulte, Cleveland, Ohio, assigner to Allegheny Steel Company, a corporation of Pennsylvania Application May 10, 1930. Serial No. 451,432 7 Claims. (Cl. 5139) s This invention relates to improvements in which holds this material against the grinding grinding machines for grinding and polishing medium in a gentle, yielding and resilient manmetallic parts; more specifically, in the embodiner and at the same time in a positive manner.

ment illustrated and described, this invention re- A further object of this invention is to provide i;V lates to machines for grinding and polishing a machine of this type which positively and elll- 60 sheets, strips and bars of metal. ciently holds and feeds the material to be ground Heretofore, it has been practically impossible and at the`same time does not mark or scratch to secure a uniformly smoothly finished surface the material.

on sheets, strips or bars of metal without the A further object of this invention is to proioi expenditure of much time and effort. It has been duce a machine of this type which is provided 65 very difficult to grind sheet or strip metal, espewith all of the necessary adjustments to accomcially of the medium and thinner gauges, Withmodate the different thicknesses of material to out ruining or burning such sheets or strips. be ground and the different types of finish re- This has been caused partly by the fact that it quired and in which these adjustments may be 15' is very difficult to produce a sheet of perfectly made in a simple manner. 70

uniform thickness by the usual rolling processes, A further object of this invention is to proand partly by the fact that it is practically imduce a machine upon which it is possible to possible to produce a sheet which is perfectly simultaneously grind a large number of strips flat, and partly due to the fact that it is diiof metal of different Widths and of substantially 2W cult to produce an abrasive or polishing wheel, the same thickness of gauge. 75

of the type required for this work, which is ab- A further object of this invention is to provide solutely true. These diiiiculties have been espea machine which is simple in construction, econcially troublesome in the finishing of sheets, omical to the manufacturer and reliable in its stripsor bars of stainless steel. This stainless operation.

' steel is now used in large quantities in the arts The annexed drawings and descriptions set so and particularly in many applications where an forth in detail certain means embodying this inespecially high and perfect polish is essential. vention, such disclosed means constituting, how- One of the objects of this invention therefore, ever, but one of the forms in which the principle is to produce a machine, for the treatment of of this invention may be applied.

30 sheets, strips and bars of metal or other material Figure 1 is a side elevation of a grinding ma- 85 wherein the entire surface of the part to be chine embodying my invention. ground is evenly, uniformly and smoothly Figure zis a pian view of the machine inusnished. trated in Figure 1` A further Object of invention is to provide 3 is a Vertical cross section taken on means by which the material to be ground is held the piane indicated by the line 3, 3 in Figures 90 against the grinding or polishing medium with a' 1 and 2, illustrating a certain improved roll for substantially uniform amount of pressure over Supporting and feeding the Work to be ground the entire Surface of the .mterialo b.e ground'. and also showing the method of vertically adjust- A further object of this invention 1s to provide ing Said roiL 40 a machine which will perfectly finish sheets and Figure 4 is a cross Section taken on the piane strips, which have the usual commercial variaindicated b y the line 4, 4 1n Figures 1 and Zand ing and polishing wheel erates with one of the supporting feed rolls to A further object of this invention is to produce grigi and fead the n'telal to be gound th a machine which will grind sheets of relatively gum 1s a' ver ma' Cross Sec lon o e ma' chine taken on the plane indicated by line 5, 5 gegthout burning warping or dlstort in Figures 1 and 2, illustrating the relation of the A further object of this invention is to progrndig Wheel to the Supporting T011 and t0 the vide a machine which will grind relatively, wide materlal t0 Pe groundi 105 sheets without vibration marks or corrugations Figure 6 1S an enlarged fragmentary SeCtlOn on the nished surfacetaken on the plane indicated by line 6. 6 in Fig- A further object of this invention is to provide Ure 2, and Showing Certain detalS Of Construca machine which comprises a novel element for tion of one of the supporting feed IHS and 0f supporting and feeding the material to be ground one of the pinch rollers and illustrating the en- 110 gagement of these rollers with the -material to be ground.

Figure 7 is a transverse section of the parts illustrated in Figure 6, taken on the plane indi- 'cated by line '7, 7 in said figure.

Figure 8 is a detached detail elevational view of one of the' elements used in my improved supporting feed rolls.

Figure 9 is a fragmentary section taken on the plane indicated by the line 9, 9 in Figure 2, and illustrating the preferred construction of the grinding wheel and its relation to the supporting feed roll and to the material to be ground.

Figure 10 is a view similar to Figure 9 but showing these parts used for grinding a type of material, different from that shown in Figure 9.

In these figures 10, 10 indicate floor stands which support the bearings 11, 11 in which the grinding wheel shaft 12 is mounted. This grinding wheel shaft supports the grinding wheel 13, this shaft being rotated by means of a pulley 14,

by a belt driven from any suitable motor or othersource of power not shown. The mounting of the shaft l2, in the bearings 1l, is adapted to permit the axial movement or oscillation of the shaft 12, and the grinding wheel 13 mounted thereon. To impart the axial movement to the grinding wheel, I provide an eccentrically mounted, vertically positioned disc 15, which engages a pair of parallelly positioned and spaced collars 16, fixedly secured to the shaft. The disc 15 is driven by suitable reducing gearing in the casing 17, which is driven by the motor 18, all mounted on a bracket supported by the adjacent stand 10, as will be clearly understood by an inspection of Figures 1, 2 and 5.

The main frame of this grinding machine which supports my improved feeding mechanism is indicated at 19. This frame comprises apair of channels 19a, 19a suitably braced and connected by cross framing so as to form a rigid, unitary structure. kThis frame is in turn supported on two bars 20, extending transversely of and beneath said frame. These bars are in turn suspended from four housings 2l, and by means of screws 22. The bars 20 at each end rest on a ball thrust bearing 23, which in turn is supported on nut 24, mounted on the bottom of the screws'22. These screws 22 are each provided with a hand wheel 25 and engage a threaded opening in the top of the `housing 21. Each end of the bar 20 is suitably perforated to permit ,the passage therethrough of the screw 22, all of which will be readily understood by reference to Figures 1, 2 and 3. It will be evident that the main frame 19 may be raised or lowered by turning the hand wheels 25 in one direction or the other.

Mounted on the channels 19a of the'main frame 19 in suitable bearings 26 are a plurality of supporting feed rolls 27 fixed on shafts 28 the detail construction of the feed rolls, which constitutes one of the novel features of this invention, will hereinafter be described.

These feed rolls are preferably driven, and for this purpose a bevel gear 29 is mounted on each of these feed roll shafts. Each of these bevel gears is in turn engaged by a bevel pinion 30, these pinions being mounted on a shaft 31 which is in turn suitably supported on bearings 32 fixed to the side of one of the frame channels 19a. The shaft 31 is power driven by means of a motor 33 driving through suitable reduction gearing mounted in the casing 34 and transmitting its power to the shaft 31 by means of a chain 35 as will readily be understood by reference to Figures 1 and 2.

Suitable pinch rollers 36 are mounted on the frame 19, these pinch rollers being similar in construction to the supporting feed rolls 27. These pinch rollers are supported at their ends in bearings 38 which are slidably mounted, for movement in a' vertical direction, in housings 39 fixed to the frame 19. These pinch rollers may be vertically adjusted by means of the screws 40 and it will be evident that, by this means, the pinch rollers may be moved toward or from the supporting feed rollers as will clearly appear by reference to Figures 1 and 4.

The details of construction of the supporting feed rolls will now be described by reference to Figures 3, 4, 6, '7, 8, and 9. I have discovered that in order to uniformly and smoothly grind stainless steel and similar materials it is necessary to support the steel on a yielding member which will yield uniformly and which will be resilient but which will not cause vibration, uneven grinding or chatter marks in the material to be ground. After extensive experiments I have discovered that the best means for supporting the material to be ground, consists of laminated fabric material mounted in such a way that the material to be ground engages the edges of the lamina- `tions. I have provided such a support in the plurality of rolls each of which is constructed as follows.

A plurality of discs 41 are cut from suitable material. This material may be woven fabric such as duck, muslin or felted fabric, or other material as leather, rubber, etc. Each of these discs is provided with a central bore 42 and preferably one or more recesses 43 in the periphery of the bore. The bore and these recesses are adapted to fit snugly over the'shaft 28 and the keys 44 mounted therein. A sufficient number of those discs 41 are mounted on the shaft 28 and are pressedtogether by means of the circular flanges 45 which are held in place by any suitable means, such as set collars 46. l It will be understood that these set collars may be moved axially along the shaft until the desired degree of yield or resiliency is formed on the periphery of the roll.

The pinch rollers are constructed in a manner identical with the supporting feed rolls, discs 47 being mounted on the shafts 37 and held in place by means of the flanges 48. The compactness of the assembly of these laminations 47 is controlled and xed by means of the set collars 49.

The grinding medium in the device illustrated, consists of a roll 13. The body of this roll is substantially the same in construction as the supporting feed rolls, consisting of a plurality of fabric discs 50 of suitable material mounted on the grinding wheel shaft l2, and having suitable recesses in their bore to t the keys 51, mounted in the shaft 12, whereby th'ese discs 50 are positively driven by the shafts. 'Ihese discs 50 are compacted and held in place on the shaft 12 by means of the flanges 52 fixed by the adjustable set collars 53. This roll has mounted on its periphery a sheet of emery or other surfacing material 54 suitable for abrading, grinding or polishing, as will be apparent by reference to Figure 9. It will be understood that this construction of the grinding wheel gives it a surface which is somewhat yielding and resilient.

Operation placed on the supporting feed rolls 2'7 and the main frame 19 is vertically adjusted so that the top of the material to be ground will bear the desired relation to the grinding wheel 13. The pinch rollers 36 are then adjusted so that they .will exert the desired amount of pressure on top of the material to be ground; causing the material to feed past the periphery of the grinding wheel 13, which runs at a relatively high rate of speed. The soft, resilient and yielding nature of the surface of the supporting feed rolls will permit the material to be ground to sink below the periphery of the rolls, due partly to the Weight of the material and also due to the slight downward force which may be exerted by the grinding wheel upon the material. It will be evident that any variation of the thickness of the material to be ground will simply cause the surface of the rolls 2'? to compress to a slightly greater extent and will not cause any greater pressure on the grinding wheel, as the result of which the grinding wheel produces uniform finish over the entire surface of the sheet of material to be ground, and does not cause burning or distortion. If it is found that one passage of the material to be ground, through the machine is not suflicient to produce the type of finish desired, the material may be fed through the machine in the opposite direction by reversing the motor 33. This may be done automatically or manually as desired. It is evident that the direction of the rotation of the grinding wheel 13 need not be reversed. It will be understood that, due to the soft and resilient nature of the periphery of the pinch rollers 36 the polished surface will not be scratched. After the material has been ground on the top it may be turned up side down, and finished on the obverse side. In this case it will also be evident that the polished surface on the first Y side will not be injured or scratched because of its soft and resilient contact with the feed rolls.

It should be pointed out that the pinch rollers serve to feed the material to the grinding whe'el and at the same time prevent the grinding wheel from moving the material out of place on the supporting feed rolls.

I have found that bars or strips which are relatively narrow have a tendency to tilt so that the upper face to be ground will not be perfectly parallel with the face of the grinding wheel. In order to make it possible to grind such relatively narrow strips or bars on this machine, thereby securingY all the advantages of the yielding, supporting feed rolls, I resort to the method illustrated in Figure 10. A relatively thin plate 55 is placed on the supporting feed rolls, and, upon this plate, I place the relatively narrow strips or bars 56 which are to be ground. I have discovered that this arrangement prevents one corner of the bar from sinking more deeply into the supporting feed rolls and insures the maintenance of the upper surface of the material to be ground in a substantially parallel relation with the periphery of the grinding wheel. The thinness of the plate 55 makes it possible to take advantage of the yielding properties of the surface of the supporting feed rolls to accommodate variations in thickness or other unevenness of the individual bars 56. It will be understood that the supporting feed rolls should preferably be of different degrees of softness for different material to be ground; for example, a thin gauge sheet or strip requires a relatively soft roll while a plate or bar of greater thickness or larger dimensions requires relativelyv harder rolls. This regulation of the degree of hardness can be effected by compressing the fabric discs axially and holding them in the desired position by means of the fianges and s et collars as pointed out above. The degree of hardness, however, should never be so great as to interfere with the proper functioning of the rolls as a yielding and resilient support in accordance with the principle of operation as herein set forth.

For some purposes laminated fabric feeding rolls may be replaced by rolls of rubber or other elastic material of proper resiliency, ywithout departing from the spirit of this invention. In fact, in the broader aspects of this invention, it is not necessary that the laminated fabric feeding support be in the form of rolls; this support might conceivably be in the form of a bed composed of laminated sheets set on edge.

The illustration in Figure 2 of the drawings shows this machine being used for relatively narrow thin strips of material. It should be clearly understood that the field of usefulness of this machine is `vnot limited to any size or thickness of material to be ground. This machine is particularly adapted for grinding and polishing thin gauge sheets whose width. is nearly equal to the width of the grinding wheel and whose length is indefinite.

Referring to the relative adjustment between the grinding wheel and the supporting feed rolls, it will not be necessary that all of the feed rolls be "adjusted simultaneously. This adjustment might be made individually for each of the rolls, by providing individual adjusting means for the bearings. It should also be understood that the grinding wheel might be adjusted and the feed rolls might be fixed.

It will also be understood that this invention is'not limited to any particular kind of grinding medium; for example a grinding belt running over a pulley is contemplated for use on this machine. It is also evident that more than one grinding wheel may be used on this machine, and that the material may first be ground on one wheel and then subjected to the action of an additional wheel of the same or finer texture with or without reversing the direction of feed. In some cases it is advisable to do wet grinding of sheets, strips or bars. For machines which are to be used for this purpose the woven fabric discs are waterproofed before being assembled on the supporting feed rolls `in order that the moisture may not affect the resiliency of the fabric. While thisinvention has been described as applied to a particular type of grinding machine it is evident that many changes may be made, from the scope of this invention, as defined by the following claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In a grinding machine, the combination of a frame including a plurality of extending bars, support bars positioned to extend beneath and beyond said frame for supporting the same, a housing at each end of said support bars, each housing being spaced from said frame, means adjustably mounting said support bars with respect to said housings, rolls rotatably mounted in said frame, vfloor stands spaced from and positioned adjacent opposite sides of said frame, and a grinding wheel journaled in said floor stands transversely of said frame, said grinding wheel being mounted in a cooperating relation with respect to at leastone of said feed rolls.

2. Ina grinding machine, the combination of a frame including a pair of oppositely positioned Without departing and spaced as well as longitudinally extending channel bars and cross bracing therefor, support bars positioned to extend transversely beneath and beyond said frame adjacent each end thereof for supporting the same, a housing at each end of said support bars, each housing being spaced from said frame, means adjustably mounting said support bars with respect to said housings, feed rolls mounted in said frame, driving. means for said feed rolls, floor stands spaced from and positioned adjacent said frame, and a grinding wheel mounted in said floor-stands transversely of said frame, said grinding wheel being mounted in contacting relationship with respect to one of said feed rolls.

3. In a grinding machine, kthe combination of a frame including a pair of oppositelypositioned and spaced as well as longitudinallyv extending channel bars and cross bracing therefor, support bars positioned to extend transversely beneath and beyond said frame adjacent each end thereof for supporting the same, a housing at each end of said support bars, means adjustably mounting said support bars with respect to said housings, feed rolls mounted in said frame, driving means for said feed rolls, floor stands spaced from and positioned adjacent each side of said frame, a grinding wheel mounted in said floor stands transversely of said frame, said grinding wheel being mounted in contacting relationship with respect to one of said feed rolls and having a flexibly mounted grinding surface, so that a piece of material passed over said feed rolls and between said grinding roll and its adjacent feed roll may be given a very smooth finish- 4. In a grinding machine, the combination of a frame including a plurality of oppositely positioned and longitudinally extending channel bars and suitable cross bracing therefor, support bars positioned transversely of said frame and beneath said frame for supporting the same near each end thereof, a housing mounted adjacent each end of said support bars, means adjustably suspending said support bars from said housings, feed rolls rotatably mounted in said frame, a common driving means rotatably and longitudinally mounted outwardly of one of the channel bars of said frame for driving said rolls, floor stands spaced from and mounted adjacent either side of said frame adjacent the substantial center thereof, a grinding wheel rotatably mounted in said floor stands, and means simultaneously reciprocating and driving said grinding wheel, said grinding wheel being mounted for co-operating and forming a pass with one of said feed rolls.

5': In a grinding machine, the combination of a frame including a pairof oppositely positioned and spaced and longitudinally extending channel bars, and suitable cross bracing therefor, 'a pair of support bars extending transversely under and from said frame and supporting said frame, each of said support bars being positioned adjacent an end of said frame, a housing spaced from said framework and adjacent each end of each of said support bars, means adjustably suspending said support bars from said housings, feed rolls rotatably mounted in said frame, and suitable driving means therefor, a floor stand positioned on each side of said frame and spaced therefrom transversely thereof, a grinding wheel rotatably mounted in said floor stands and co-operating with one of said feed rolls, and pinch rolls mounted on said frame on each side of said grinding wheel above the plane of said feed rolls and cooperating with thefeed rolls adjacent said grinding wheel.

6. In a grinding machine, the combination of a frame including a pair of oppositely positioned and longitudinally extending and spaced channel bars, a pair of support bars extending transversely underneath said frame and supporting the same, housings for adjustably supporting said support bars, feed rolls mounted in said frame, means for rotating said feed rolls as a unit, a separate floor stand positioned adjacent each side of said frame transversely thereof, a grinding member rotatably mounted in said floor stands, said grinding member contacting and forming a pass with one of said feed-rolls, pinch rolls positioned transversely of said frame on each side of said grinding roll and co-operating and forming a pass with adjacent feed rolls, housings for said pinch rolls, and means suspending said pinch rolls "from said housings and adjusting them vertically with respect thereto.

7. In a grinding machine, the combination of a frame including a pair of spaced and oppositely positioned and longitudinally extending channel bars, a transverse bar positioned beneath/said frame adjacent each end thereof for supporting said frame, a housing at each end of each of said transverse bars, means adjustably suspending said transverse bars from said housings, a plurality of feedrolls transversely and rotatably mounted between the channel bars of said frame along a substantial portion of the longitudinal dimension thereof, means rotatably mounted longitudinally of one of said channel bars and co-operating with each of said feed rolls, and reversible means for driving said rotatably mounted means, a floor stand spaced from and positioned adjacent the substantial center of said frame adjacent either side of the transverse Width thereof, a grinding wheel rotatably mounted in said floor stands and contacting and forming a pass with one of said feed rolls, a pinch roll mounted on each side of said grinding roll above a given feed roll and co-operating and forming a pass therewith, housings mounted on said frame adjacent each end of said pinch rolls, and means adjustably mounting said pinch rolls with respect to their said housings, said pinch and feed rolls and said grinding wheel having a resilient and flexible construction, so that a piece of ma-` terial passing thereover may be given a very fine finish.

LOUIS SCHULTE.

CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION.

Patent No. 1,929,101.

LOUIS SCHULTE.

It is hereby certified that error appears in the printed specification of the above numbered patent requiring correction as follows: Page 4, line 10, claim 2, after "adjacent" insert opposite sides of; and that the said Letters Patent should be read with this correction therein that the same may conform to the record of the case in the Patent Office.

Signed vand sealed this 21st da'y of November, A. yD. 1933.

F. M. Hopkins (Seal) Acting Commissioner of Patente.

October 3, 1933. 

